Sunday, March 31, 2013

The Middleman

In 2008, The Middleman ran for 12 episodes on ABC Family. It was a fun, pop-culture referencing, series that saw struggling artist Wendy Watson, become a secret agent in training to be the next Middleman for O2STK (Organization Too Secret To Know).

Wendy was selected for training by the current Middleman after she demonstrated the ability to keep cool under pressure when she took on an attacking monster with a letter opener.

The Middleman is both the position and title for the agent. Each new Middleman is selected and trained by the current Middleman, with the trainee taking the mantle when the current Middleman retires or dies.

With so many success stories coming from crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Pozible, just to name a few, and the promise from Warner Brothers to green-light a Veronica Mars movie should they be able to show enough support (currently at $4,322,144 raised through crowd-funding as of this posting), it is no surprise that more and more people are taking their dreams to the public in order to make them reality.

What better way to prove there is a market for your product than by having your audience support it financially upfront and, with so many companies complaining about piracy, it seems this is also a way for people to show they're willing to pay for things they want, and will receive on release, not delayed due to ridiculous excuses based on locations.

Crowd-funding works. I know my first response upon hearing about the opportunity for more Middleman was...